45th St E Roadway Construction Update

As residents back in the woods along the east side of 45th st.e near just north of Gap Creek watch as construction crews use heavy machinery to clear a swath 25 feet into old growth wooded frontage, potable water pipes and Fios telephone and internet cables have been torn up with it, interrupting service. The construction crews where quick to turn off and temporarily repair potable water pipes and where very considerate to the home owners and flushed out the pipes at hose bibs outside of the homes. The pipes are repaired temporarily because someday in the near future, the potable water main will be replaced and the homeowners water meters will be relocated further east as where they are now they will be out in the middle of the new 4 lane roadway. The Fios cables took 2 to 3 days to be repaired leaving homeowners with no phones or internet. The repaired Fios cable where left exposed above ground as heavy machinery travels back and forth near it.

Removed during this period was the sidewalk on the east side of 45th St e. Not six weeks before this construction project started these sidewalks, which have been cracked and buckled for years, crew shown up to replace all the cracked sidewalks! I couldn't believe when construction crews where out there doing this job, and now it's all torn up and gone. What a waste of money.

FPL came on scene this week installing new concrete telephone poles 35 feet east of the existing concrete poles. These existing concrete poles had only been installed about 2 years ago, another big waste of time and money. Before they could put the poles in, FPL needed an additional 10 feet of clearing the woods so they sent out crews to clear the trees cutting them off and leaving the stumps some as high as 18" above ground level. I had hoped that a live oak left standing on my property would have been saved but they needed to take it down. Now I am left with bare ground and vine roots that need to be dug up, and get the area smoothed down so grass will grow.

There is a few impact on our lifestyle loosing the woods across the frontage, exposing our properties to the roads. Within days of loosing the woods, I found unknown neighborhood teenagers wandering thru my property "looking for a shortcut". I witnessed 2 rear end car accidents on the road as rubberneckers where drawn to look into the expanse of our once secluded area and glance at the 12 acre lake behind our homes that they never knew was there. I had to build a temporary privacy fence as our family dog can now also see out to the road and seems to be drawn to any pedestrians to happily say hello, although to the pedestrian they must think they are under attack by a junk yard dog. The fence took care of that. Then there is the road noise and the dust. With no trees the wind was carrying dust and everything is covered in dust.